UVM mens hockey hit the road to face off against 11th ranked Northeastern University last Saturday night and came away with the win. Breaking a five-game winning streak for the Huskies, the 18th ranked Catamounts have improved their record to 12-8-3 [4-6-0].
The Catamounts made their come back in the third period leading to the 4-1 victory over the Huskies. “They are playing with a lot of confidence now, they are on a roll” head coach Kevin Sneddon said.
Neither team scored by the end of the first period. Northeastern’s, first-year forward Dalen Hedges scored in the second period, making it the first goal of the night when he stuffed in the rebound.
“When we went into the locker room between the second and third periods, we told the guys’ good teams find a way to win. No more excuses about how good that goalie (Clay Witt) is,” Sneddon said. “They answered the call. They came out and stormed them.”
Just 15 seconds into the third period senior forward Chris McCarthy assisted first- year forward Mario Puskarich as the rookie took a wrist shot to score the first goal of the game for UVM.
The Catamounts’ lead came at the 2:11 mark when first-year Tom Forgione got a tally off a wrist shot on the high glove side into the upper right corner.
Vermont continued to increase their lead when they began their second power play of the night when McCarthy took the puck to the goal line to stuff it in for his first goal of the night.
Northeastern proceeded to pull goalie Clay Witt for the extra skater upper hand with two minutes left in regulation.
The Huskies were unable to capitalize on the advantage and Puskarich passed to McCarthy who was in the middle of the rink and he led the puck to the goal as he crashed into the opennet securing the win with 30 seconds remaining. Vermont won 4-1 against Northeastern.
McCarthy is three points away from becoming the 42nd player in program history to reach the 100-point plateau. The senior co-captain skated away with three goals over the weekend.
“I loved the way we skated for six periods this weekend,” Sneddon said. “No question this was a game for the psyche as well and it’s nice to finish non-conference at 8-2-3.”
Vermont moved up in rankings to No. 17 according to USCHO.com (U.S. College Hockey Online) Division I poll. This makes Vermont one of six Hockey East schools to get ranked within the top-20.
“Hockey East is so good this year and so tight probably all our weekends are gonna feel like playoff games,” senior forward H.T. Lenz said.
The Catamounts next game will be against Boston University at Agganis Arena for a two-game Hockey East series Jan. 24.
The faceoff will start at 7:30p.m. and the second game of the series will take place Jan 25 at 4:00p.m. and is set to be televised live on the New England Sports Network .
